Ms Adrienne Murray:

We are looking for a change. We will speak to the Department with regard to the statutory instrument. The process is that banks must decline an application for credit, either formally or informally, in the first place. If the youth enterprise scheme gets the appropriate funding and we go ahead in that respect, we will discuss with the Department the idea that we would link in directly into that in terms of part of the training, that we would work with the potential applicants and that we would be preferred or designated lender in order that the applicants could come straight to us. That is a practical demonstration of how we are exploring ways of how we can open up our channels of financing. Assisting young people under the age of 25 who wish to borrow will be particularly challenging as they will not have a track record or the standard security. In many areas there is a high business failure among that group, but they will have the combination of training, mentoring, the skills and a modest loan coupled with post-loan mentoring. Studies abroad demonstrate that with such supports there is a greater chance of businesses and jobs being sustained. We are exploring options such as that.